We’ve pored over the maps and corridor drawings, and we’ve belabored the financing issue. But throughout the process, there has been a lack of planners and designers providing Californians with a vision to believe in, with an image of what life could be like with high-speed rail. I’m paraphrasing Dana [continue reading]
If friends ever try that to claim you can’t have a successful transit system without rails in the ground, just nod politely and tell them to visit Seattle. The Emerald City didn’t have an inch of modern rail transit until a starter streetcar line opened in 2007 and a light [continue reading]
Last week, we posted the link to the Westside Subway Extension’s Metro’s construction impacts fact sheet. This week we bring you info from the subway’s new property acquisition fact sheet, which you can find here as a website and here as a PDF. While this fact sheet is directly about [continue reading]
Rep. John Mica (R-Florida), chairman of the House Committee on Transportation, today released the outlines for a proposed multi-year federal transportation bill. The good news: It contains some of the things needed to make America Fast Forward the law of the land. America Fast Forward would use a federal loan [continue reading]
As I’ve said many times before, the world of transportation finance is truly understood by roughly six people on the entire planet. The rest of us — on most days — would rather be spared the details. That said, everyone does understand this: paying for big transit projects is challenging [continue reading]
Below is the news release from Metro on the news earlier today that the Westside Subway Extension is about to secure a $640.8-million federal TIFIA loan. As the release states, Metro staff will be working in the next several weeks to determine the exact impact the loan will have on [continue reading]
Very good news today for the Westside Subway Extension: a $640.8-million loan neared final approval for the project by the U.S. Department of Transportation, according to Senators Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein. The loan is coming from the TIFIA program, which is the Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act. TIFIA [continue reading]
Metro officials and many business and labor leaders are anxiously awaiting some big news: Rep. John Mica (R-Florida) is scheduled on Thursday to release an outline of his version of the next multiyear federal transportation spending bill. Why is that a big deal? Because Metro and many others are hoping [continue reading]
As we’ve crossed the halfway point of 2011, Metro’s government relations staff are still plugging away and hoping to persuade Congress to make America Fast Forward [AFF] the law of the land. AFF would provide government loans and other financing that would allow Metro to accelerate the construction of 12 [continue reading]
A few weeks back I noticed an interesting chart on the America Public Transportation Association [APTA] website on how long people had been riding transit. The chart was compiled using data provided by local agencies across the U.S. In particular, I was struck by their numbers showing that a lot [continue reading]
